order.' And the second of Adams's charts, upon which the famous House
of Lords' tapestries were designed, actually represents the queen's
ships standing out of Plymouth in line ahead, and coming to the attack
in a similar but already disordered formation. Still there can be no
doubt that, however far a rudimentary form of line ahead was carried
by the Elizabethans, it was a matter of minor tactics and not of a
battle order, and was rather instinctive than the perfected result of
a serious attempt to work out a tactical system. The only actual
account of a fleet formation which we have is still on the old lines,
and it was for review purposes only. Ubaldino, in his second
narrative, which he says was inspired by Drake,[3] relates that when
Drake put out of Plymouth to receive Howard 'he sallied from port to
meet him with his thirty ships in equal ranks, three ships deep,
making honourable display of his masterly and diligent handling, with
the pinnaces and small craft thrown forward as though to reconnoitre
the ships that were approaching, which is their office.' Nothing,
however, is more certain in the unhappily vague accounts of the 1588
campaign than that no such battle order as this was used in action
against the Armada.

It is not till the close of the West Indian Expedition of 1596, when,
after Hawkins and Drake were both dead, Colonel-General Sir Thomas
Baskerville, the commander of the landing force, was left in charge of
the retreating fleet, that we get any trace of a definite battle
formation. In his action off the Isla de Pinos he seems, so far as we
can read the obscure description, to have formed his fleet into two
divisions abreast, each in line ahead. The queen's ships are described
at least as engaging in succession according to previous directions
till all had had 'their course.' Henry Savile, whose intemperate and
enthusiastic defence of his commander was printed by Hakluyt, further